When I first started my freelance business, I was unaware of most of the tools and software available to help streamline processes and save time.
I squandered an excessive amount of time attempting to figure out how to make bookings easier, create nice-looking graphics for my blog, and improve the appearance of my opt-in boxes.
Not to mention the time spent searching through old emails for a client’s Twitter password or editing the incorrect version of a word document.
But eventually, I began to learn about the tools that could save me time, money, and headaches while making me project a more organized and professional look as a freelance business owner. Talk about a win-win-win situation.
These are the 16 tools I use on a daily basis to keep my freelance business running smoothly.
WordPress
WordPress, in my opinion, is the best platform for building a professional-looking website. There are thousands of themes and plugins to choose from to achieve the exact look you desire without knowing how to code. A well-designed website can help you stand out from other freelancers and demonstrate that you mean business! Furthermore, because of the WordPress platform’s flexibility, you can be confident that your website will grow with your business and never prevent you from reaching new heights.
Freshbooks
It’s essential to send professional-looking invoices. Freshbooks is extremely simple to set up and customize so that your invoices look spectacular. They also include a time tracking app, allowing you to bill for exactly the number of hours you worked. However, the best feature of Freshbooks is how simple it makes it for clients to pay you. Freshbooks integrates with PayPal and credit cards, allowing clients to pay you with a single click. There will be no more excuses for late payments!
ConvertKit
One of the wisest things you can do as a freelancer is to focus on building a solid email list of your ideal clients. Email marketing provides the highest return on investment (ROI) of any marketing channel.
ConvertKit provides all of the tools you need to grow and engage your clients, such as custom landing pages, automated email sequences, and tags that allow you to segment your list however you see fit! It’s simple to stay in touch with your list and set up automation to do the selling for you.
Last year, I switched from a MailChimp account to ConvertKit, and I’m glad I did.
Bloom
Every opt-in on your website should look good, match your branding, and be effective in converting readers into subscribers and clients. The lack of design options for opt-in boxes in email software such as ConvertKit and MailChimp is one of the more frustrating aspects.
Bloom is a plugin that allows you to create styled opt-in boxes that are both attractive and functional! There are several great out-of-the-box options to customize with your brand colors and fonts. Furthermore, it gives you complete control over where the opt-in boxes appear on your site.
Google Analytics
If you have a website, you must use Google Analytics (GA).
GA displays the amount of traffic you’re receiving, where it’s coming from, and what they’re looking at. You can use this information to:
- Create more valuable content that will appeal to your target audience.
- Improve conversions on the pages where people are spending the most time.
- Spend more time on the marketing channels that are driving traffic to your website (for example, you might see that Pinterest brings you twice as many people like Twitter, so you should spend more time promoting on Pinterest)
- Recognize the keywords that people use to find your website.
All of this information will help you attract a larger audience and more clients.
HubSpot Sales
HubSpot is an inbound marketing platform that you may have heard of. However, they also have a free tool suite called HubSpot Sales, which is excellent for streamlining interactions with your client leads.
This free tool can be used to create email templates or sequences to send to leads. You can also track when a potential lead opens your email to know exactly when to follow up. And if you ever send a cold email, the Gmail plugin will help you confirm that you have the correct address.
Grammarly
Every interaction is an opportunity to demonstrate to clients that you’re a professional who cares about their work, and sending an email or proposal with a few spelling errors sends the wrong message. Grammarly is a free plugin that will save you from the embarrassment of typos.
This is especially helpful if you’re creating content for yourself or your clients. Nobody wants to share a Facebook status update that contains a misspelled word! So, do yourself a favor and download and install the free plugin.
YouCanBook.Me
Have you ever tried to schedule a meeting with someone via email and ended up sending your available times back and forth for what seemed like days until you found an agreed-upon time?
You: Please notify me when you are available for a meeting.
Client: I am available at any time!
You: That’s great! How about Thursday at 4:30 p.m.?
Client: Oh, that’s when I’ll be picking up my child. What about Friday at 11 a.m.?
You: I’m not available at that time. Are you available earlier on Thursday?
And this goes on indefinitely.
Set up a calendar on YouCanBook.me to make things easier. It’s ridiculously simple (and completely free)! You simply set up your calendar, select your available times, and your clients can choose and book a spot that works for them!
You can create rules and time slots that are convenient for you. You’re not a morning person? Clients should not be able to book before 11:00 a.m.! Do you want to finish your workday at 3:00 p.m.? Schedule your final available appointment for 2:30! Do you have a spin class every Wednesday at noon? Schedule a couple of hours on Wednesdays to avoid missing your favorite class!
This tool saves a lot of time otherwise spent on back-and-forth emails. It also makes you appear more professional and organized, which is always a plus!
HootSuite
Social media can be a huge time waster. However, it’s a necessary evil if you want to grow your freelance business. HootSuite (and Buffer) can help you schedule your social media posts ahead of time, so you don’t have to spend the entire day on Twitter or Instagram (here’s a complete guide to creating a successful Instagram profile). Make your updates for the entire week at once, then upload them to Hootsuite and schedule them out over the course of the week.
This frees up your time to concentrate on other things, such as scheduling client meetings and winning contracts!
PlannThat
This is yet another life-saving social media scheduling tool. If you’re an Instagram user, then this app is right for you. It includes everything you need to create a unified, visually appealing feed. You can see how your photos appear in your grid, drag and drop them, and crop and edit them.
Hashtag management is one of my favorite features of this app. It lets you create multiple sets of up to 30 hashtags that you can then copy and paste into your Instagram post. Check out their blog for tips and inspiration on how to improve your Instagram skills.
Canva
If you’re not a Photoshop whiz, a free tool called Canva can help you create great designs. Canva has hundreds of templates for everything – from social media posts and headers to blog graphics, PDFs and downloadables, flyers, and business cards.
Even if you have no design experience, the tool is incredibly simple to use. You can create professional-looking designs by using their templates and elements. You can also upload your own images to use in your designs or choose from their library (some of which are free, while others cost $1).
Unsplash
Unsplash is the go-to resource for finding high-quality photos in any situation. If you’re creating any type of content that requires images – websites, blog posts, social media content, videos, graphic design – Unsplash is a great place to start. The images were all submitted by incredible photographers from all over the world. Oh, and they’re completely free to use.
Google Drive
Before I started freelancing, I hadn’t given much thought to file storage and sharing. I simply saved everything on my desktop and sent emails to the most recent document version. However, once I began working with clients and sending files back and forth, I quickly realized that a shared system would be far superior.
With Google Drive, you can create shared folders for your clients and upload any files they require, such as images, documents, spreadsheets, etc. You can actually store a large number of files for free in Google Drive, and both you and your clients (and anyone else you grant access to) can see everything. Furthermore, you will not have to save a copy of your document and end up with file names like ‘final-blog-post-title-version-1’ and ‘final-final-blog-post’ and ‘no-really-this-is-the-final-version.’ You and your clients can make changes in real-time, and everything is saved in the cloud, so you can always see the most recent version without going on a hunt.
Dropbox
Dropbox is an additional option for storing and sharing files in the cloud.
Toggl
As a freelancer, it’s critical to keep track of your time. This is why:
- If you bill by the hour, you must know how many hours you worked.
- Even if you don’t bill by the hour, it’s useful to know how long certain tasks take to determine if you’re charging enough for your services.
- Tracking your time can help you be more productive because you’ll know where your time is going.
- Time tracking serves as a reminder to take breaks!
Toggl is my favorite time tracking app. I can track my time spent on specific clients and projects, see how much time I spend on various activities, and even use the Pomodoro timer to remind myself to take a break every half hour.
LastPass
It can be a nightmare trying to remember all of your own passwords. Assume you obtain the passwords for ten different clients’ WordPress sites. Yikes! LastPass is truly a lifesaver!
LastPass is a password manager with a browser plugin that saves and auto-fills all of your passwords for you, so you only need to remember your LastPass master password. You can also share passwords with team members without revealing your true password to them. Security is a lifesaver!
